How to tactically ensure your fleets’ optimum efficiency

Optimisation of vessels is necessary to reduce fuel consumption, lower shipping’s environmental footprint, and increase sustainability of the entire operational chain. There are a multitude of ways that ships can be optimised, starting with the initial concept design and use of a digital twin, through to the installation of various technologies and monitoring software, and finally but one of the most important aspects, the way the crew are trained and led to understand and enhance the operational efficiency of a vessel.

This conference in London will investigate how a ship can be optimised from the initial design concept to its daily operation, identifying which solutions work best and how crew are motivated to ensure the vessel is operated to its maximum efficiency.

Jakob Buus Petersen is Director and Co-founder of Vessel Performance Solutions. The company specialises in software products and consultancy services within Performance Management for the shipping industry.

Petersen began his maritime career as a naval architect with Force Technology, rising to the position of Chief Specialist. Next assignment was as Chief Specialist and Head of the Vessel Performance Department within Maersk Maritime Technology for the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group in Copenhagen. He successfully led the implementation and management of the Vessel Performance Management Service focused on optimizing the operational performance of a large fleet. Later Petersen joined American Bureau of Shipping as Director of Energy Efficiency. He was responsible for the development and implementation of the classification society's initiatives and programs within performance management and visited numerous shipping companies around the world to discuss Performance Management.
Petersen brings more than 25 years of technical and operational experience to Vessel Performance Solutions and has gained international recognition for his work on ship performance. Petersen's professional experience encompasses fuel efficiency, fuel indexing, EEDI, EEOI, ship performance and maneuvering. He also headed the optimization of the hull lines and propellers for Maersk's Triple E next generation container ships. Petersen holds an MSc in Naval Architecture and a PhD for "Nonlinear Strip Theories for Ship Response in Waves" from the Technical University of Denmark. He has been involved in many industry committees and joint industry projects, including the ITTC Maneuvering Committee which he chaired for three years.

Christer Baltzersen, Sales Director Applications, has been working in the maritime satellite communications industry since 2007 and before that held various sales and marketing positions in the Norwegian telecommunications industry. In Inmarsat Maritime he is now engaged in solutions for digitalization through Inmarsat’s Certified Application Partner program, enabling new ways of accessing and monitor vessels required by the growing focus on IoT solutions for the maritime community.

Tobias Groeger, Senior Consultant Performance Solutions, started working in maritime industry in 2007 and joined DNV GL in 2009.
He held several positions and moved over to the Fleet Performance team in January 2014.
The DNV GL Fleet Performance Team provides the maritime industry with class-independent and customizable solutions to support shipping companies increasing their operational efficiency.

Tobias Gröger holds a university degree in ‘Maritime Economics and Port Management’ and has sailing experience onboard container vessels.

Michael Schmidt
General ManagerOMTv click for bio v

Michael H Schmidt is a naval architect, B.Sc. He graduated in 1988 and joined the ship design team of Burmeister & Wain Shipyard in Copenhagen. In 1995 Michael was employed by ship design consultancy, Carl Bro A/S, where he for 15 years developed mainly ship designs for European owners to be built at Asian yards. More than 150 bulk carriers and multi-purpose vessels have been built in China, Vietnam and India to designs developed by Michael and his colleagues. Today Michael is in charge of the bulk carrier design portfolio at Odense Maritime Technology (OMT). Furthermore Michael is acting as expert witness at London Arbitrations with focus on bulk carrier and multi-purpose design and general vessel performance.

Bjarte Lund
Engineer of Marine MachineryKymav click for bio v

Bjarte Lund is the head of the service department at Kyma as, Norway. Kyma a.s is a specialist in the field of manufacture and development of products for marine performance monitoring.

Bjarte has a Master degree as a Marine Engineer from the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim. Bjarte has been a Naval officer for 23 Years, where he finished the Naval Academy in 1991, and have about 6 Years as a crew member on Submarines, with the latest position on board as a Chief Engineer. After the career on board was finished, Bjarte has served as a Technical Superintendent, Head of the Mechanical Projects Department, and as the Head of the Design Authority Department at the Norwegian Naval Logistics Organization.

Bjarte has worked in Kyma for about 6 Years with main focus on R&D on performance monitoring, where he has been involved in designing new software tools to optimize the performance from a fleet and Vessel point of view, like the Generator Engine optimization tool, the Charter Party module, etc. Bjarte has also been a commissioning engineer for Kyma for Newbuilds and retrofit Kyma installations and has also done a lot of performance analysis projects for different customers.

Edwin Schuirink
Product ManagerVAF Instrumentsv click for bio v

Edwin Schuirink obtained his bachelor degree in mechanical engineering in 1990 and started his professional career in the propeller and engine manufacturing business. He obtained a lot of experience in this segment of the maritime industry as a mechanical engineer, project engineer and area sales manager. In 2010 he joined VAF Instruments BV (Dordrecht, the Netherlands) as a Technical Product Manager, representing the T- and TT-Sense optical torque & thrust measuring systems and fuel consumption measurement in general.

At VAF Instruments he joined the technical and R&D department in developing the PEM4 Efficiency Monitoring system, the user interface between a wide range of VAF sensors and the crew on board. Moreover he worked on a variety of efficiency monitoring projects worldwide and gained extensive practical experience in fuel consumption measurement and engine, propeller and fleet performance monitoring.

Robert Pfannenschmidt
Senior DesignerMMG Propellerv click for bio v

Robert Pfannenschmidt, Senior Designer, joined MMG in 2010. He is working in the Research & Innovation department, where he is responsible for the hydrodynamic propeller design. Next to propeller design he is also working in joint research projects. Robert Pfannenschmidt holds a university degree Diplom-Ingenieur in mechanical engineering.

Martin Briddon
Engineering and Business Development ManagerMimicv click for bio v

Martin joined James Fisher Mimic in 2003 following 34 years service in the Royal Navy. During his time at sea Martin served as the Marine Engineer Officer for two Mine Counter Measure vessels and as the Deputy Marine Engineer Officer on a Type 21 frigate. Shore appointments included four years with the Machinery Trials and Assessment Unit, where he was awarded an MBE for his services to Marine Engineering, and the final three years as the Fleet Machinery Vibration Assessment Officer. He has completed the RN RCM Facilitators course and has numerous service and civilian qualifications in machinery operation, maintenance and machinery health assessment.

As the Engineering Manager for James Fisher MIMIC, Martin has continued to work in partnership with the Royal Navy: ensuring that the MIMIC Condition Monitoring system provides integrated solutions to condition monitoring within the RN fleet. He has also worked with many commercial ship owners and operators to optimise their approach to maintenance and helped individual companies to save significant sums from their maintenance budgets.

He is an old school engineer that promotes the use of Performance Indicators and condition monitoring to better inform engineering operators and maintainers and enable them to make good decisions.

Neil Cook
Technical DirectorJames Fisher (Shipping)v click for bio v

Neil Cook is Technical Director for James Fisher Shipping Services which operate and manage a fleet of 16 clean product tankers.

Neil’s, seagoing career started in 1994, sailing on a variety of vessel types from Cadet through all ranks to Chief Engineer and also in an offshore role as Assistant Technical Section Leader on a drill ship.

Ashore Neil has worked in ship management as Technical Superintendent, looking after gas tankers and container vessels.

In 2015 Neil joined JFSS his role is to oversee the technical management and performance of the fleet and to encompassing training and support for crews on technical issues.

His focus is on the management and optimisation of plant operations as well as developing strategies for future projects driven by the need for improved safety, environmental safeguarding, efficiency, changing legislation and trading requirements.

Neil is currently researching the requirements for future compliance with environmental legislation, in particular Ballast Water Management and CAP 2020, he’s very much looking forward to VPO as a sounding board for new ideas and Technology.

Maria has a background in Psychology in both Clinical and Industrial disciplines. She is a chartered member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (CIEHF). Her initial career focused on mental health issues and worked in clinical settings. She has also worked as a researcher in different research institutions and universities and she was awarded a PhD in Psychology. Guided by her interest in the practical application of Psychology to other domains, Maria has worked during the last three years in the maritime field focusing on, but not limited to, human behaviour and safety in the maritime industry. The most recent projects she has managed and/or collaborated in revolve round human factors and risk-based design, resilience, safe maritime operations and artic shipping and human element factors in safe and efficient shipping (https://www.gnsworldwide.com/takes-two-smarter-ships-smarter-people/).

Maria's current interest within the Schumacher Institute is to demonstrate that “people matters” and are the most valuable assets in advance and technological societies and domains. She brings a systemic, idiosyncratic and human-centred approach to her projects and combines knowledge and expertise of psychology, human behaviour, personality, wellbeing, human factors and statistics.

Mike Powell is an accomplished Senior Executive, former solicitor and master mariner, with extensive change management, process re-engineering and operations leadership credentials gained from a 35+ year career in the Maritime and International Shipping sector. He has worked with companies such as Union Maritime Ltd, Maersk Tankers, Glencore’s ST Shipping & Transport and BP Shipping in senior roles with global reach.

In 2011, Mike established Cardinal Point Marine, a shipping consultancy providing services to the shipping industry. Through Cardinal Point Marine, Mike applies the full breadth and depth of his experience and passion for thorough understanding of process, risk and operational performance for the benefit of his clients.

Mike has a track record of delivering improvements within diverse multiple stakeholder environments and executes projects based upon a thorough grasp of the organisation, process and systems involved and applying formal management of change techniques. Whilst recognising the value of tradition and convention, Mike often challenges their application and proposes alternative and innovative approaches.

Jean-Marc Bonello is a Doctoral Researcher at the UCL Energy Institute with a research interest in information and data use in decision-making related to the uptake of energy efficiency technologies in shipping towards emission reduction. Through UCL, he has worked with various owners and operators to understand the role that AIS, in-service and metadata analytics has in their daily operations and its application for appraising future decisions and investments. He forms part of the shipping research group at the UCL Energy Institute that lead the 3rd IMO GHG Study and development of ISO 19030. The research group's activities are centred on modelling and analysis of the energy efficiency of the shipping industry, combining detailed models of energy consumption onboard ships with macro analysis of patterns of energy consumption across the global fleet. The group maintains a number of techno-economic models including GloTraM (Global Transport Model), which is used to explore shipping's future scenarios and technology evolution. He has an MSc in Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture from the University of Southampton and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Malta. His work experience includes design and consultancy in mechanical building services as well as naval architecture EPC consultancy in the oil and gas industry.

Session 1 - Ship design and retrofitting

The design of a ship and location of its components has a significant influence on its fuel consumption. Scrubbers, ballast tanks, LNG conversions, all change the dynamics of a ship and affect the way it consumes its fuel. This session will look at how ships can be designed, with the help of a digital twin, to be more fuel efficient from concept design to build.

Session 2 - Performance management

The performance of a ship is about far more than the software and solutions installed on board. It is about how the crew operate the vessel and their understanding of a technically fit vessels, the status of equipment and management for best performance. The integration of technology into human operations and investing in seafarer training is vital to enhance the efficiency of the entire shipping operation.

The session will look at how vessels are operated for best performance management and the role of the crew in keeping a vessel technically fit.

Session 3 – Ship operations and strategies for 2020 compliance

With the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap fast approaching, the shipping industry is considering which fuels or which technologies best suit their operations. One important aspect of this is whether bunker suppliers are prepared for the fuel demands and whether shipyards have the capacity for retrofits or ship conversions. This session will address these questions and address the risk of fuel contamination when switching fuels. It will also look at whether batteries, which are largely associated with short sea shipping, will be a viable option for commercial ships post 2020.

Each session will contain 2 plenary presentations followed by a panel or question and answer session. We will close the day with interactive and tailored Roundtable discussion groups.

Who should attend:

CEOs/CIOs/CTOs/COOs/Managing Directors

Operations directors/managers

Performance directors/managers

New build directors/managers

Technical directors/managers

Fleet performance directors/managers

Energy performance directors/managers

Engineering directors/managers

Will also meet delegates involved in Ship Design, Emissions, Regulations, and Sustainability, as well as those working for Marine Equipment Manufacturers, Marine Solution Providers, Paint and Coatings Manufacturers, and Fuel Suppliers.